RED AND BURY'ED

Bit miffed we won't be taking many to Gigg Lane on Wednesday, but why would we, let's be honest.

A midweek trip in December during the blizzards to watch the stiffs get messed around by part-timers.  If this was on a Saturday we'd be looking at 300 tops!

The baton is therefore passed to the northern exiles.  One of the great things about nose-bleed trips is hearing all the northern accents in the away end.  A strange mix of Brightonians who have cross-bred with locals to produce Albioninos with aye-up tongues, and fans who just liked the silly name, the FA Cup heroics of 1983 or stuck a pin in Shoot one day looking for a team to call their own.  It's a fine and warming mix.

It's cold up here at the moment and though the urbanised parts of Greater Manchester have escaped heavy snow fall, this game would not be on if the hot-air cover was not erected over Gigg Lane this week.

Pictures here, courtesy of the FCUM website, show the bohemouth in all it's glory, exhaling it's toasty breath over the frozen Lancastrian plains.  It's quite a structure actually, and along with the ESPN minions bolting together the camera gantries and presenter caravans, we're truly getting ready for a FA Cup cracker!

FC are hoping to beat their previous record attendance of 6,023 and tickets are selling like hot cakes.  If you're Albion you don't need tickets - though we could do with some hot cakes - just pay on the gate with Stripes being housed in the Main Stand I think (undercover, but no heated seat).

Follow us on twitter (@tslr) for our thoughts from the game, as it happens.